Idaho could follow Texas in pushing anti-TSA groping bill

Earlier this week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry reintroduced a bill that would make it a felony in his state for employees of the federal Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) to conduct pre-flight pat down searches at security check points.

It looks like Idaho might follow Perry’s lead when lawmakers meet in Boise next year.

Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, told IdahoReporter.com said he may address search methods in thenext legislative session, set to begin in January. “I do plan on revisiting the issue,” said Hart, who unsuccessfully pushed a bill to limit the use of full body scanners at public airports in Idaho in 2010.

Hart says he is looking into the problem, but isn’t certain if the bill he crafts will mirror the Texas legislation. “Whether it will be like the Texas bill, I don’t know,” he explained.

Hart could likely count on support from his seatmate and political ally, Rep. Vito Barbieri, a Republican from Dalton Gardens. Barbieri, co-author of a bill to prevent certain parts of the 2010 federal health reform bill from being implemented in Idaho, told IdahoReporter.com Wednesday that he would support a Texas-like bill if the details are right. “I would, of course, want to see the details,” Barbieri said.

Barbieri said the TSA is perfect evidence of a federal government agency that has run amok. “The TSA is a prime example of the federal government intruding needlessly,” he said. “The way they have set this bureaucracy up is mind-boggling.”

Perry added the bill to a list of legislation Texas lawmakers will address in an upcoming special session. The first version of the legislation was scrapped after U.S. attorney John Murphy sent a letter to state lawmakers saying that the legislation would criminalize a practice mandated by federal regulations.

Murphy also warned that the state had no authority to essentially cancel out the pat down process and threatened that “TSA would likely be required to cancel any flight or series of flights for which it could not ensure the safety of the passengers and crew.”

Hart wants to examine if TSA really has the authority to conduct pat down searches. “I don’t know if they have that authority,” he said. But, even if the agency does have the ability to pat down travelers, Hart said, the Constitution and the Fourth Amendment may prohibit it. “I think pat downs for everybody or scans of their naked bodies are unreasonable searches and not allowed by the Fourth Amendment. I prefer that we follow the Constitution.”

Barbieri said he wouldn’t back down if the Idaho Legislature was threatened by TSA over an anti-pat down bill. “I would follow through with the state sovereignty issue on behalf of the citizens of Idaho,” he stated.

If Gem State lawmakers decide to follow Texas, it wouldn’t be the first time the Idaho Legislature has pursued a measure to clamp down on TSA pre-flight screening methods.

The bill Hart brought in 2010 would have banned full body scanners from airports and some other public buildings. Hart told his colleagues in the House that the science behind the machines, which provide a picture of a traveler essentially without clothes, is spotty and that they might pose a cancer risk.

Hart’s legislation would have used the state’s police power to prohibit the machines from being installed or used in public airports or city, county, or state buildings.

The measure passed the Idaho House on a 58-9 vote, enjoying bipartisan support from legislators. It died, however, when it failed to receive a hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

Hart’s bill may not have mattered anyway, or so said Idaho deputy attorney general James Carlson. In a legal opinion about the measure, Carlson wrote that even if the Senate and the governor had gone along with the plan, the law would have been preempted by federal regulation.

Carlson’s legal opinion didn’t stop Hart from pushing the bill. The Athol Republican gained bill approval from a House committee 11 days after receiving the legal opinion.

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About The Author

Dustin Hurst serves as the Communication Director for the Idaho Freedom Foundation. He graduated from Boise State in 2009.
His work has been featured by Fox News, Townhall, Public Sector Inc., the Daily Caller, Reason, Human Events, the Spokesman Review and more.
He and his wonderful wife Julia have two cute kids. The family resides in Middleton.

23 Comments

[…] Next year, an Idaho lawmaker may look to limit pre-flight pat down searchesIdahoReporter.com“I do plan on revisiting the issue,” said Hart, who unsuccessfully pushed a bill to limit the use of full body scanners at public airports in Idaho in 2010. Hart says he is looking into the problem, but isn't certain if the bill he crafts will mirror …Texas pat-down ban could spark new fight with fedsCNBC.com […]

I went to see somebody at the CORRECTIONS CORPORATION OF AMERICA SUPPOSE TO BE AN IMMIGRATION FACILITY in Arizona so if this Institutions are being run by private entitis so that means the Home Land Security is a PRIVATE CORPORATION why would they have to have the rigth to pat us down it’s not the Country it’s not THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES all this people specially the one that ex chief in charge of immigration Michael Chertoff and now is the one that sold this machines to the AIRPORTS,is he really an American what about that women Napolitano is she an AMERICAN is she for sure thinks she is Born an American Citizen sure doesn’s look like none of this people LOVE there Country they only think about the greet of the Dollar which its already crash. So if we really think about it all human being born in USA do not have a Country they are born in a COORPORATION so (Who really our Soldiers fight? for there MADRE PATRIA or for the pockets of the ELITES for the Big guys.

I hope Idaho follows Texas .. honoring the 4th Amendment in regards to the sovereignty of a US Citizen’s own body… especially children, which the TSA pats down children, taking diapers off of babies… I did not serve in Iraq in order to promote a police state… I hope Idaho does defend it’s citizens against an oppressive government. Thank God for the 9th and 10th Amendment in giving States authority to counter move the Federal Government when it gets out of control… again.

“In a legal opinion about the measure, Carlson wrote that even if the Senate and the governor had gone along with the plan, the law would have been preempted by federal regulation.”
Since WHEN does a regulation of any kind, trump a LAW? I have decided as, a LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, to live my life by the LAWS of the State of Idaho, and the U.S. Constitution, and say to HELL with “regulations”. When I and my wife, or our elected Representatives, have voted for and have passed a bill into LAW, then THAT LAW will be legally binding to me and mine.
It is all explained in both the Idaho State Constitution, and the U.S Constitution. Read them and EMPOWER yourselves!!

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